A 20-year-old woman has survived after being buried beneath an avalanche for at least ten minutes.

Emily Anderson says she had just finished one of the best ski runs of her life on Crystal Mountain in Washington when snow swept her into a deep tree well.

She was on the slopes with a friend who managed to narrowly miss the wall of snow that trapped her.

"I saw a slide break underneath my feet and I heard it. There was nothing I could do. It just started to sweep me off … I remember going down and not being able to stop," the student said in an interview with King5.com.

"My first reaction was I could easily die right here,” she added.

In the interview, Ms Anderson describes how she tried to save herself by scooping away an air pocket around her mouth and praying for help.